London Living Rent Scheme (1)

Susan Hall: Further to the launch of your London Living Rent scheme in 2016, how much funding, to date, has the Mayor provided for affordable homes in London via the London Living Rent scheme?

The Mayor: The AH 2016-23 funding guide available on the GLA website sets out funding levels for homes delivered under different tenure types in the programme. For London Living Rent, funding is provided at £28,000 per home through the mainstream approved provider routes. The Mayor's programmes give providers flexibility to let a home as London Living Rent or sell it on Shared Ownership up until the point of first occupation, rather than this being determined at the point of start or completion. To the end of September 2020 there were a total of 22,084 homes started on site for SO and LLR of which 1,625 homes were noted for LLR at that stage.

London Living Rent Scheme (2)

Susan Hall: It was announced in 2016 that Hackney was to be the 1st borough to build 500 affordable homes for London Living Rent. Have all of these houses since been built?

The Mayor: London Borough of Hackney do not have a programme of London Living Rent (LLR) homes. The Borough do have a programme of "Hackney Living Rent" (HLR) homes with a long-term target, set out in the Mayor of Hackney's Manifesto, to deliver 500 HLR homes, matching the GLA’s published rental benchmarks for London Living Rent properties in 2020/21. These HLR homes are not funded by the GLA.

London Living Rent Scheme (3)

Susan Hall: Is the London Living Rent Scheme affordable housing programme on track? Which London boroughs have built affordable homes for London Living Rent since 2016? Please advise which boroughs have done so and how many have been built per borough. Please provide data specific to London Living Rent & not in combination with shared ownership.

The Mayor: I launched London Living Rent in 2016 as a new way to help Londoners on middle incomes save up and access home ownership, and while I did not set any specific targets for the product I am pleased with what we have achieved so far. My programmes give providers flexibility to let a home as London Living Rent or sell it on Shared Ownership up until the point of first occupation, rather than this being determined at the point of start or completion. The table below shows homes started on site as LLR from April 2017 (when the first LLR start was recorded) to end of September 2020.
London Living Rent starts (from 2017 to Sept 2020)
Bexley
116
Brent
94
Bromley
79
Croydon
132
Ealing
132
Enfield
54
Greenwich
28
Hammersmith and Fulham
31
Harrow
23
Havering
68
Hounslow
38
Kingston upon Thames
12
Lewisham
141
Merton
11
Newham
321
Tower Hamlets
6
Waltham Forest
187
Wandsworth
126
Westminster
26
Grand Total
1,625

New Homes (3)

Susan Hall: Since the press release entitled “Mayor strikes landmark deal for 20,000 new homes” was released on 06.04.17, how many have been completed?

The Mayor: Since the press release entitled “Mayor strikes landmark deal for 20,000 new homes” was released on 06.04.17, how many have been completed?
Please see answer 2021/0178

Rough Sleepers (2)

Murad Qureshi: According to the latest CHAIN data, there were 3,444 rough sleepers in the capital between July and September 2020. Of these, new rough sleepers accounted for 55% of all rough sleepers. On 11 January, the hold on section 21 evictions is due to come to an end. On 30 April 2021, the furlough scheme is also due to come to an end and unemployment figures are expected to rise significantly. What assessment has the Mayor made of the expected number of new rough sleepers coming onto the streets as a result, and what measures will be put into place to mitigate this?

The Mayor: I am very concerned that a combination of factors, including what could potentially be the deepest recession of our lifetimes, will push even more people onto the streets. Estimates from various sources suggest that up to 350,000 renters have fallen behind with their rent in the wake of pandemic. A proportion of these will be at risk of losing their home when the current restrictions on eviction enforcement are lifted on 22 February. It is not possible to accurately predict how many of these, and those impacted by the end of the furlough scheme, people will sleep rough as a result.
My Life Off the Streets rough sleeping services will be ready to support anyone who finds themselves on the streets as swiftly as possible. These have continued to operate throughout the pandemic, adapting as necessary to ensure they are COVID-secure. In addition, through our targeted rough sleeping COVID response, almost 2,000 people have been accommodated in the GLA-procured hotels and new referrals from the street will continue to be taken. I will also continue to lobby the Government for funding for a second ‘Everyone In’ to ensure that anyone rough sleeping during the pandemic can be safely accommodated.
The best way to help people is to ensure that they do not become homeless in the first place, which is why I am also lobbying the Government to increase welfare support, and to put in place promised reforms to renting which would end no fault eviction for private tenants.

London Living Rent Scheme (4)

Susan Hall: What evidence is there to date that, by participating in the London Living Rent scheme, renters have been able to save for a deposit and to go on to buy their own home within the 10 year time limit?

The Mayor: As the first London Living Rent homes were started in April 2017, it is too early to assess their effectiveness in helping renters go on to buy their own home within 10 years.

London Living Rent Scheme (5)

Susan Hall: How successful have you been to date in putting an end to so-called "rent conversions, which you pledged to put an end to in 2016, whereby existing social housing is re-let at higher rents?

The Mayor: I achieved this objective in 2019. The number of social rented homes in London converted to Affordable Rent or (in a handful of cases) Affordable Home Ownershipfell from 2,030 in 2015/16 to 236 in 2018/19 and zero in 2019/20.

Shared owners and lease lengths

Siân Berry: One of the recommendations in the London Assembly Housing Committee letter to you after its review of affordable home ownership in March 2020, was that you: “require housing associations to report on an annual basis how many of their shared owners have 85 years or less remaining on their lease." In your response you said: “I do not believe that requiring housing providers to report this information to the Greater London Authority (GLA) is appropriate […] However, I am encouraged that housing providers told the Committee that they would be interested in exploring what more can be done to offer longer leases […]. I have asked my officers to follow up with g15 representatives to discuss this further.” Could you update me on these discussions?

The Mayor: I believe that leaseholders should be protected from the unreasonably costly and burdensome leasehold extension processes and I agree that longer leases can improve the experience of Londoners living in shared ownership or leasehold properties.
I intend to use my London Affordable Homes Programme 2021-26 to introduce an expectation that partners across the housing sector provide 999-year leases as standard, unless there are site specific circumstances – such as the land ownership basis – which prevent this from being possible. Deputy Mayor Tom Copley will be writing to housing sector partners shortly to set out this expectation.
I also wrote to Secretary of State Robert Jenrick in December 2020, as part of the response to a technical consultation on the new shared ownership model. In this I urged him to ask Homes England and the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government to review the shared ownership model lease with a view to introducing longer standard lease terms.

Cladding replacement on tower blocks under 18 storeys

Siân Berry: Can you tell me how many tower blocks in London under 18 storeys high have been rejected for funding by the Government to have their Aluminium Composite Material cladding replaced, and what are you doing to help the leaseholders and housing providers affected by this problem of being excluded from support?

The Mayor: Across the Social and Private Sector ACM Cladding Remediation Fund (SSCRF and PSCRF), a total of eight buildings have been rejected for not meeting the 18 metres height requirement. Seven were rejected from SSCRF and one rejected from PSCRF.
I have long been aware of the impact on leaseholders residing in unsafe buildings under 18 metres and the effects this is having on their mental health and wellbeing. That’s why I have called for a long-term funding solution for all unsafe buildings – including those below 18 metres – which protects leaseholders from costs. Before Christmas I clarified that this funding solution should include a levy on the profits of private developers to address the rampant inequality in building safety standards and fund vital cladding replacement work on properties across London.
I have been clear that fire safety risks are not limited to residential buildings above 18 metres. I have campaigned for the ban on combustible materials to apply to all new buildings regardless of height, and I have made this policy a requirement in my new Affordable Homes Programme and new homes built on public land which are commissioned via my London Development Panel.

Cost of fare collection from Oyster and contactless payment

Caroline Pidgeon: What is the percentage cost of fare collection for TfL from payments by (a) Oyster, (b) contactless payment?

The Mayor: Please see my response to MQ 2021/0429

St Ann’s Hospital site

Siân Berry: In your answer to my question 2019/14193, you said: “I cannot give you the answer in relation to the specific tender going out because that would be subject to discussion between the Housing team and StART,” which you followed up with a commitment saying: “I am not sure about whether they have signed off the tender process, but I can get someone to write to you about that.” Could you now tell me if StART, the community land trust that came up with the idea for community-led homes in the first place, agreed to the terms of the tender and the terms of their involvement going forward?

The Mayor: As per my commitment at the time, my officers wrote to you subsequent to your question 2019/14193. Please therefore refer to letters sent to you by Neil Hook dated 30 July 2019 and 20 September 2019.

New homes in London

Tony Devenish: How many new homes have been built in London by G15 housing associations between 2016-2020?

The Mayor: The GLA does not hold this data.

Affordable homes (1)

Tony Devenish: Could you please provide a breakdown of the expected cost per housing unit in your second government-funded affordable housing programme 2021-26?

The Mayor: The £4bn AHP 2021-26 programme will be used to support 35,000 affordable homes. Negotiated grant rates will operate for all projects under this programme, and therefore grant levels will vary. Further information is set out in the Homes for Londoners: Affordable Homes Programme 2021-2026 Funding Guidance, published in November 2020.

Cladding

Susan Hall: Could the Mayor confirm how many private sector buildings have had funding allocated from the cladding remediation fund administered by the GLA and what is the total value of this allocation?

The Mayor: The total value allocated as of 15 January 2021 for the Private Sector ACM Cladding Remediation (PSCRF) and Building Safety Fund (BSF) is £91.1 million. The breakdown of this is £79.3 million from the PSCRF allocated to 38 buildings and £11.8 million from the BSF allocated to 21 buildings.
Resident safety is paramount, and my Building Safety Team will continue to work with building owners to ensure funding is allocated at pace enabling them to remediate their buildings to make residents’ homes safe.

Tower blocks (3)

Andrew Boff: Will you require the publishing of a plan to remedy overcrowding for all new homes with less than three bedrooms?

The Mayor: Too many Londoners are having to live in unsuitable and overcrowded homes. My new London Plan contains policies that will ensure the delivery of good quality housing that meets the needs of Londoners. This includes, for the first time, a requirement for the housing size mix in new developments to have regard to local Strategic Housing Market Assessments, and a requirement for boroughs to set out the size mix of social housing needed in their areas.
The Intend to Publish London Plan has been with Government since December 2019.I urge the Government to approve the Plan as soon as possible, to provide much needed certainty, and ensure that we can build the homes that London so desperately needs.

Metropolitan Police Service employee travel plan

Caroline Russell: Does the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) have an employee travel plan, and have surveys been conducted into the modes of transport used by officers and staff to commute to work? If so, could details of this plan, including any targets and measures taken to reduce car commuting be provided, alongside any data held on employee commuting mode share collected over the past three years?

The Mayor: The Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) does not capture the travel plans of officers or staff, however green travel is encouraged.
All MPS staff can apply for an interest free loan to purchase a season ticket to travel to work and all police officers have access to a free oyster card, which allows them to travel on all Transport for London (TfL) operated services throughout London.TfL also allows Pollice Community Support Officers (PCSOs) to travel for free on the bus network, both on and off duty.
Finally, police officers can access a subsidised rail travel scheme which allows them to travel on national rail services within a 70 mile radius of London.

Protocols for Undertaking or Discontinuing Internal Audits

Keith Prince: Following up on Questions 2020/4094, please provide me with a copy of TfL’s formal protocols for undertaking or discontinuing an Internal Audit.

The Mayor: Please find attached Transport for London’s Audit Manual for undertaking Internal Audits that was in place at the time of audit IA16767.

The Mayor: 4626 Attachment.pdf

Total London Housing Zone programme outputs

Murad Qureshi: How much of the indicative GLA funding allocations; total number of homes; total number of affordable homes and total number of construction jobs have been delivered so far across all the housing zones in London (further to Question 2020/4525)? Can we also have the breakdown for each of the individual housing zones across the capital.

The Mayor: The GLA published statistics sets out the number of homes delivered through the Housing Zone programme, which was launched in 2014 with the aim to work with boroughs across London to accelerate and unlock delivery on sites that would otherwise not be delivered. In total 4,966 homes have been started on site by the end of September 2020, of which 1,903 are for affordable housing. The Housing Zones programme also supports a number of construction jobs however this is not a specific programme target and contracted partners are not required to provide information in relation to construction jobs to the GLA for monitoring purposes.

Affordable Housing Programme

Siân Berry: In the document, Homes for Londoners: Affordable Homes Programme 2021-2026 Funding Guidance, published in November 2020, it states that £1 billion of the £4 billion allocated by the Secretary of State to London comes from the Long-Term Strategic Settlement. It said that these projects: "will be subject to additional approvals from central government, which the GLA will undertake with the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government.” Could you give me more detail on what these approvals will involve, and what impact they will have on your ability to deliver affordable homes for Londoners?

The Mayor: My £4 billion Affordable Homes Programme 2021-2026 includes a £1 billion Long-Term Strategic Settlement for projects with starts on site from 1 April 2022 to 31 March 2026 and completions to 31 March 2029. Projects funded through the Long-Term Strategic Settlement require additional approval from the Secretary of State to confirm that the funding supports the programme requirements as set out in the funding guide.When initially secured, the Long-Term Strategic Settlement enabled delivery over a longer period of time and the Secretary of State’s argued this distinction warranted an additional layer of scrutiny.
I have expressed concerns about the introduction of an additional Secretary of State approval stage, highlighting that the devolved investment powers the Greater London Authority has held since 2012 mean I am responsible for meeting affordable housing targets in London. In the previous two years under these current arrangements, which are set out in law, I have achieved record numbers of affordable housing starts – including over 17,000 affordable homes last year. This additional layer of approval risks confusing ownership of the settlement delivery outputs, and, having negotiated the parameters of the programme with MHCLG, I should have the freedom to make decisions on allocations in London in order to be accountable for delivering against the target.

Housing zones funding

Siân Berry: Of the £200 million loan from the Government to enable affordable housing in London’s 30 Housing Zones, could you tell me: a) how much has the GLA loaned out, b) to which organisations/boroughs, c) at what interest rates, and d) what repayments have been received? Could you provide this information in an accessible table format?

The Mayor: The attached Excel table includes the information requested above.
Of the initial £200 million Housing Zone facility £190m has been drawn from MHCLG with £182m being on-lent to counterparties as at 31 December 2020. To date, the GLA repaid £10.3m of the facility to MHCLG in March 2020. The GLA has received further repayments from counterparties in this financial year (2020-21) totalling £66m. This amount will be repaid to MHCLG by March 2021 in accordance with the annual repayment clauses in the facility agreement.

The Mayor: MQ 2021-0031 Annex.xlsx

New Homes (2)

Susan Hall: In relation to your press release entitled “Mayor strikes landmark deal for 20,000 new homes, issued on 06.04.17, when will any remaining homes be started? Are these on track for March 2023?

The Mayor: To date, under the Mayor’s Affordable Housing Programme 2016-23, L&Q has started a total of 9,053 genuinely affordable homes. L&Q are due to start construction of another 787 genuinely affordable homes by March 2021 which provides an overall total of 9,840. The GLA is working closely with L&Q’s new Chief Executive on the delivery of the remainder of their development programme across London. To date L&Q has completed a total of 2,768 genuinely affordable homes since the start of the current programme.

New Homes (1)

Susan Hall: Since your press release on 06.04.17 entitled “Mayor strikes landmark deal for 20,000 new homes”, please advise as to how many new homes have since been started?

The Mayor: To date, under the Mayor’s Affordable Housing Programme 2016-23, L&Q has started a total of 9,053 genuinely affordable homes. L&Q are due to start construction of another 787 genuinely affordable homes by March 2021 which provides an overall total of 9,840. The GLA is working closely with L&Q’s new Chief Executive on the delivery of the remainder of their development programme across London. To date L&Q has completed a total of 2,768 genuinely affordable homes since the start of the current programme.

Ventilation at stations

Caroline Pidgeon: I understand that Network Rail and train operators have put in place various improvement measures to address the air quality issues in stations included establishing an ‘intelligent’ ventilation system at Birmingham New Street, where air quality data feeds directly into managing the ventilation system. What steps is TfL taking to learn from these innovations and adopt them across London Underground stations?

The Mayor: Transport for London (TfL) is not aware of the ‘intelligent’ ventilation system you describe as being operated at Birmingham New Street station. It does, however, actively collaborate with other transport operators and infrastructure managers through bodies such as the Rail Delivery Group, where matters including new technologies, risk assessment methods and innovations from the supply chain are discussed.
Having read your description of the Birmingham New Street station intelligent ventilation system, TfL believes it would be supporting the non-public area of the station. Currently, the ventilation equipment on London Underground stations, which forms the significant part of the TfL building ventilation infrastructure, is conservatively designed in excess of statutory minimum requirements with an adequate provision of fresh air. This approach aligns with the current Government guidance to mitigate against aerosol transmission.
I will ask TfL to contact Network Rail to learn more about the system being operated in Birmingham.

Mayor’s Housing Strategy (1)

Susan Hall: Further to your intention in 2017 to earmark £250m for City Hall to use for buying & preparing new land for new & affordable housing, please demonstrate how the money made from selling land to homebuilders has been recycled to buy further land for new & affordable homes.

The Mayor: This £250m was combined with additional funding to create the £736m Homes for Londoners Land Fund to enable a more interventionist approach in London’s land market. To date approximately £390m has been committed to enable the delivery of approximately 15,200 homes. Of this committed amount, £292m has been invested in repayable investments. The first repayments are due in 2021/22.
As reported at the Homes for Londoners board meeting in December, the Homes for Londoners Land Fund is performing very well against the targets set by MHCLG.

Cladding

Leonie Cooper: The Cladding scandal affects many blocks in Merton and Wandsworth. What more is the Mayor doing to help my constituents affected through no fault of their own?

The Mayor: I remain deeply concerned about the impact unsafe cladding and wider safety defects are having on leaseholders across London and it is shameful that many leaseholders are being told to pay for building safety issues they have played no part in causing.
I have and will continue to lobby government to ensure sufficient financial support is made available to remediate all unsafe buildings and protect leaseholders from these costs. This lobbying has so far resulted in over £5bn being made available by the Government and a new levy on developers to ensure those responsible contribute towards fixing this crisis. I have made clear however that this fails to do enough to support leaseholders, particularly those in blocks below 18 metres.
My Deputy Mayor for Housing is committed to engaging with affected leaseholders regularly and I will continue to support campaigns focused on ensuring buildings are made safe as quickly as possible.